Wearable drone could revolutionize our favorite form of vain photography.

Imagine being able to take a selfie when you’re doing something amazing all alone. You can do it with the help of a photo-friendly new drone. (Photo: Olga Danylenko/Shutterstock)

It seems like an inevitable technological marriage: drone technology and a selfie camera. When you're doing something amazing and you need a longer shot, here's a helicopter-like, hovering drone that specializes in taking your picture at the perfect above angle.

The flying cam, which has been developed by Nixie, is designed to be flexible and lightweight enough to wrap around your wrist for easy transportation. Then, when the ideal selfie opportunity presents itself, it can takeoff from your wrist, hover over you, and snap your picture.

“You should be able, with a gesture, to tell the quadcopter to unfold,” says designer Christoph Kohstall in the Team Nixie demo video. “Then it’s going to take off from your wrist. It knows where you are. It turns around, takes a picture of you, and comes back. You can catch it from the air and put it back on your wrist.”

There's certainly an art to the perfect selfie, and one popular angle is to hold the camera at arm's length so that it points down upon the photographer. (Anyone with an Instagram profile or online dating site profile should be familiar with the shot.) The Nixie quadcopter fixes the most persistent problem with this type of selfie: namely, by making the awkward shot of your outstretched arm unnecessary.

Because the drone can sense its user from the air, it can also follow you as you move around, all the while snapping photos or video. Rock climbers, mountain bikers, surfers and other adventure sports enthusiasts might therefore see this as an invaluable tool for documenting their hair-raising feats. Essentially, the Nixie drone is like a flying GoPro that tracks your movements.

Never underestimate people's vain desire to photograph themselves. The Nixie hovercam certainly has a target audience. It could even be a cheap tool for amateur videographers and filmmakers to capture difficult moving angles without the need for laborious equipment.

The technology is still in development, but you can see how it works in more detail in the following video: